Journal Article

Effective high-throughput RT-qPCR screening for SARS-CoV-2 infections in children

Zotz, Rainer, Fries, Mira, Kossow, Annelene, Moran-Tovar, Roberto, Herzum, Ileana, Jomaa, Hassan, Rybniker, Jan, Behr, Florian, Lässig, Michael, Hünseler, Christoph, Heger, Eva, Philipsen, Paul, Johnen, Ronja, Joachim, Alexander, Wisplinghoff, Hilmar, Fätkenheuer, Gerd, Niessen, Johannes, Steger, Gertrud, Beyer, Andreas, Suárez, Isabelle, Wolff, Anna, Tiemann, Carsten, Junker, Lena, Dewald, Felix, Kretschmer, Alina, Lingnau, Andreas, Pranada, Arthur, Knabbe, Cornelius, Schräpler, Jörg-Peter, Baeza-Flores, Guadelupe, Meyer, Meike, del Valle, David Laveaga, Klein, Florian, Kirchner, Georg, Schmitz, Franz-Josef, Knops, Elena, Roblero-Hernandez, Alberto, Hernandez, Adriana Torres, Grossbach, Jan, Rubio, Gibran Horemheb, Hellmich, Martin, Quade, Gustav, Weber, Lutz T., Kaiser, Rolf, Magana-Cerino, Jesus, Linne, Viktoria, Schega, Konstantin, Cullen, Paul, Buess, Michael, Dötsch, Jörg, Kley, Joao, Di Cristanziano, Veronica, Jeworutzki, Sebastian, Gude, Carina, Ruiz-Quinones, Jesus, Wunsch, Marie, Lüers, Jan-Christoffer

2022

Overview

Systematic SARS-CoV-2 testing is a valuable tool for infection control and surveillance. However, broad application of high sensitive RT-qPCR testing in children is often hampered due to unpleasant sample collection, limited RT-qPCR capacities and high costs. Here, we developed a high-throughput approach (‘Lolli-Method’) for SARS-CoV-2 detection in children, combining non-invasive sample collection with an RT-qPCR-pool testing strategy. SARS-CoV-2 infections were diagnosed with sensitivities of 100% and 93.9% when viral loads were >10 6 copies/ml and >10 3 copies/ml in corresponding Naso-/Oropharyngeal-swabs, respectively. For effective application of the Lolli-Method in schools and daycare facilities, SEIR-modeling indicated a preferred frequency of two tests per week. The developed test strategy was implemented in 3,700 schools and 698 daycare facilities in Germany, screening over 800,000 individuals twice per week. In a period of 3 months, 6,364 pool-RT-qPCRs tested positive (0.64%), ranging from 0.05% to 2.61% per week. Notably, infections correlated with local SARS-CoV-2 incidences and with a school social deprivation index. Moreover, in comparison with the alpha variant, statistical modeling revealed a 36.8% increase for multiple (≥2 children) infections per class following infections with the delta variant. We conclude that the Lolli-Method is a powerful tool for SARS-CoV-2 surveillance and can support infection control in schools and daycare facilities. Dewald et al. combine a non-invasive sampling approach (Lolli-Test) with an RT qPCR-pool testing strategy to screen for SARS-CoV-2 infections in children and use the method for surveillance and infection control in > 4000 school and daycare settings.

• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group UK,Nature Publishing Group,Nature Portfolio
• Subject: 49/47 / 49/88 / 692/308/3187 / 692/699/255/2514 / 692/700/478/2772 / Child / Children / Clinical Laboratory Techniques - methods / COVID-19 / COVID-19 - diagnosis / COVID-19 - epidemiology / COVID-19 Testing / Daycare / Deprivation / Disease control / Humanities and Social Sciences / Humans / Infections / Mathematical models / multidisciplinary / SARS-CoV-2 - genetics / Schools / Science / Science (multidisciplinary) / Screening / Sensitivity analysis / Sensitivity and Specificity / Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 / Statistical models / Surveillance / Viral diseases